I built a web tool to see and edit what an AI thinks before it answers

In plain words

This tool lets users view and modify what language models are thinking in their internal layers before generating answers. Built on research from Anthropic's Jacobian Lens technique, it applies this interpretability method to open-source models. Users can watch how different word possibilities activate during processing—for example, seeing "ocean," "sea," and "surf" light up before the model settles on "waves." The tool also allows direct editing of internal states to see how changes propagate through the model's response. It's free and designed for anyone interested in understanding how AI systems form their outputs.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Lucid watches a language model think. It reads the concepts a model holds before it speaks, layer by layer, using Anthropic

In the maker’s words, at launch

I run a small AI lab and playground and got super excited about Anthropics paper "Verbalizable Representations Form a Global Workspace in Language Models" (https://transformer-circuits.pub/2026/workspace/index.html) It talks about how they use a tool they call a Jacobian Lens to view inside…

• 
  Llama 3.2 Interpretability with Sparse Autoencoders2024 · github.com · ▲579

  I spent a lot of time and money on this rather big side project of mine that attempts to replicate the mechanistic interpretability research on proprietary LLMs that was quite popular this year and produced great research papers by Anthropic [1], OpenAI [2] and Deepmind [3]. I am quite proud of this project and since I consider myself the target audience for HackerNews did I think that maybe some of you would appreciate this open research replication as well. Happy to answer any questions or face any feedback. Cheers [1]…

• 
  Circuit Tracer2025 · anthropic.com · ▲457

  Anthropic's open tools to see how AI thinks

• 
  Create mind maps to learn new things using AI2024 · github.com · ▲170

  Enter a topic and get a learning mind map generated by an LLM with links to learn more about each subtopic. You can use it with local models (through Ollama) or external models. If you have any feedback, please share it! Hope it's useful Demo: https://youtu.be/Y-9He-tG3aM

• 
  Opper AIJul 2026 · opper.ai · ▲229

  Hey HN! After the Car Wash Test post got quite a big discussion going (400+ comments, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47128138), I spent the past few weeks building a tool so anyone can run these kinds of questions and get structured results. No signup and free to use. You type a question, define answer options, pick up to 50 models at a time from a pool of 200+, and they all answer independently under identical conditions. No system prompt, structured output, same setup for every model. You can also run a debate round where models see each other's reasoning and get a…

• 
  LLM Explorer2023 · ▲152

  Find your best LLM for a local inference

• 
  ThoughtDAG – An editable context graph for LLM conversationsAug 2026 · chenxiachan.github.io · ▲136

  ThoughtDAG indexes local agent conversations across tools, finds the turns relevant to your work, and turns them into editable context graphs.

• 
  Spira Maxima▲578

  Video model that turns script into viral social media videos

  AI · 19d ago · spira.ai

• 
  Rill Browser▲540

  The browser where Claude Code and Codex work beside you

  AI · 19d ago · rill.love

• 
  Germany's new sovereign AI model Kolibri▲424

  Kolibri is Aleph Alpha

  AI · 20d ago · tej.as

• 
  Giving Opus 5.5 a simulated paint canvas▲392

  Paintings by AI models: programs run through a simulation of oil paint.

  AI · 22d ago · stillwet.art

• 
  Beam.win▲378

  Run AI agents on one Mac and use its windows on another

  AI · 5d ago · beam.win

• 
  FastRouter.ai▲364

  Route requests to the right LLM for cost, latency & quality

  AI · 23d ago · fastrouter.ai

• IR
  I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s▲2,935

  I might be the only SRE on Earth with his own bowling center. It's a more in-depth gig than you'd think. My family and I bought an abandoned 8-lane bowling center in the rural mid-west. In our small town there weren't many recreation options for families. You've heard of a food desert? This is an R&R desert. It had been abandoned for a good reason. The roof leaks, the electrical system was constantly surging, and my 70-year-old bowling equipment (still) doesn't work perfectly. The system that keeps your score is particularly interesting to me. It's the thing you watch during your game, but…

  Life & fun · Jul 2026

• 
  Elevators▲1,680

  How elevators push your buttons

  Life & fun · Jul 2026 · john.fun

• 
  18 Words▲1,160

  Play 18 Words, the free daily word puzzle. The official home is 18words.com. Tap Play now to open today

  Life & fun · Jul 2026 · 18words.com

• BA
  Bento - An entire PowerPoint in one HTML file (edit+view+data+collab)▲1,033

  Over the past few months, our team has been building more and more slidedecks using web frontend technologies with coding harnesses like Claude Code, but a common complaint is to make even small edits we need to edit the code either manually or via the harness. To avoid this loop, I ended up creating Bento, a single HTML file with everything you need in a slide tool including animations and shared editing. There's no install or cloud login, everything works offline. The default deck is around 560 KB and it doesn't need to fetch anything once you got it. Open it in a browser and then you can…

  Dev tools · Jul 2026 · bento.page

• 
  Getting GLM 5.2 running on my slow computer▲937

  A few days ago I found myself trying out GLM 5.2 and was really positively impressed. The capabilities and security I was getting from this LLM are similar to those I've gotten from models like Claude or GPT, and this really surprised me. But then I thought, "I wonder how it would work on a normal computer like mine," and above all, "I wonder if it would work without going into OOM on a computer like mine." So I started working with the help of agents to test this possibility. I started converting the model to int4, understanding MTP usage, and if possible implementing DSA for long context.…

  AI · Jul 2026 · github.com

• 
  OpenSEO▲928

  Hello! For the last 2 months, I've been building OpenSEO. It's a user friendly UI wrapping the DataForSEO API which has high quality SEO data for keywords, backlinks, AI SEO and competitor research. Instead of paying $100+ per month, you buy DataForSEO credits and pay only for usage. The coolest thing about the project so far has been hearing about what people are building on top of it. People are using coding agents to quickly integrate with Google Search Console, Google Ads and building their own AI SEO and reporting features. Many were already building their own custom solutions around…

  Dev tools · Jul 2026 · openseo.so